The Helmet Room at the Montresso* Art Foundation is pleased to welcome the exhibition residency of Nigerian artist Francis Agemo until February 24, 2024. Entitled “Beyond the Present“, this artistic presentation is made up of a series of works with striking visuals, revealing the full richness of Nigeria’s heritage. In an intoxicating diversity of artistic media, the notion of politics is also addressed, leaving the public free to guess Francis Agemo’s rebellious will in the face of a government deaf to the people’s demands.
“Every generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfill it or betray it” Referring to this quote by Franz Fanon, contemporary artist Francis Agemo has already discovered his obligation and is perfectly determined to carry it through to a logical conclusion. Art as an expressive tool is used here by the Nigerian artist to depict the daily lives of the individuals and citizens he encounters, offering viewers of the “Beyond the Present” exhibition a humanist, deeply political opus.
Francis Agemo analyzes Nigerian modernity and heritage in all its contemporary relevance and political definition through a variety of media, notably figurative art, sculptures and paintings. This ambivalence testifies to an immobile and permanent power, indifferent to the recriminations of the people. “Beyond the Present” presents works in black monochrome, illustrating obscurantism, which allegorically represents a burning response of hope and affirmation that Francis Agemo’s art allows to be expressed in the face of power’s inability to perceive it.
Nigeria represents only a small square on the African continent’s global art map. From this analysis, the contemporary artist uses his art to express and communicate his rebellious will. In so doing, he carries the voice of his homeland far and wide, creating for it a place of choice within this rapidly evolving continent, where relationships are being forged, closing the chasm between contemporary art and tradition.
As disparities consolidate and inequalities disappear, punctuated by socio-cultural issues, Francis Agemo chooses satire to depict this heap of contemporary realities. He creates totems devoid of the capacity for reflection and empathy, an analogy of a government exiled from reality, static, embodied in a continuum of ancestral Nigerian objects. His wooden sculptures bear witness to the lives of children affected by restrictions, the gaps between fields of possibility. His figures speak out against today’s vices, notably corruption and the loss of mechanical solidarity.
Using objects rather than words, Francis Agemo bypasses discursive limits, moving away from the conventional view that aestheticizes politics, politicizing the artistic. Faced with this tension, the artist takes the side of the latter, likening his work to a revolutionary praxis, fighting against censorship in a restrictive society.
After several series of exhibition residencies at the Jardin Rouge focusing on modern upheavals, Francis Agemo proposes a pause, during which he projects the public’s gaze into the future. Through “Beyond the Present“, the Nigerian artist offers a window on the world to come, through the prism of art venues. Culture as a political symbol, refractory beauty, the aesthetic expression of our mobilizations and certainties take up position in the Helmet Room of the Montresso* Art Foundation. “Beyond the Present” challenges the present to question a future it hopes will be different.
